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Disgust – Handing asylum seekers back to those they are fleeing from

WARNING This post contains graphic images

It has been widely reported that Australia is seeking to hand over to the Sri Lankan Military Tamil asylum seekers that came into Australian waters on one of two boats that Mr Arrogant Scott Morrison is yet to even acknowledge the existence of.

The United Nations has expressed “profound concern” over the reports and debate is still raging over the legality of turning back asylum seekers that are already in Australian territory, as this possible breaches international laws.

Some may recall the last Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting that was held in Sri Lanka last year and was boycotted by many nations, including Canada. This is interesting as Tony Abbott seems to have developed a special friendship with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper who thought that Sri Lanka’s recent alleged atrocities that include genocide, torture and rape were serious enough to boycott the event.

Other world leaders such as UK PM David Cameron called for a United Nations investigation into the allegations of torture and genocide.

As our government hands fleeing Tamils back to the military they were fleeing from, I thought it might be appropriate to have a reminder of why these men, women and children are risking their lives to escape.

You could be forgiven for comparing Tony Abbotts and Scott Morrisons plans to handing back Jews to the Nazis, or handing Cambodians over to the Khmer-Rouge.

Australians may have voted to stop the boats but they did not vote for this.

If you think that is OK handing these poor desperate families back to the military responsible for the images above then that’s fine, I hope you sleep soundly whilst your government does this in your name.

If you think it is an act of utter bastardry and that as a country this is something we should be ashamed of, then do something. Ring a talkback station, write to your paper, tell your friends, write a blog, post something on Twitter or Facebook.

Let’s not be a nation of people who just shrug and say it’s all too hard.

36 thoughts on “Disgust – Handing asylum seekers back to those they are fleeing from”

Various places, some of the images I’ve had for a while from previous posts and I oreiginally sourced them using google images and sites they have come from included Amnesty and a UNHCR site, as well as various new agencies. They are widely available images

I think it is a testament of our general ignorance to even need to see images like this to understand why people flee from war, and why it is outrageous to hand people back into the hands of those whom they are fleeing.

WE cannot and should not accept the actions of this government WE SHOULD BE SCREAMING FROM THE ROOF TOPS NOT IN OUR NAME ,
What the asylum seekers [men women and children] have to put up with is a fate worse than death,
WHEN DID AUSTRALIA LOOSE IT’S SOUL

And it is nasty for Peter and other ALP supporters to get this, but it was Gillard who made the executive order to send home 400 Sri Lankans a week and Bob Carr who declared they were all economic migrants, Kevin Rudd who sent Duncan Lewis and the AFP to train the Sri Lankan navy and police in how to stop, jail and torture anyone trying to leave, Rudd who halted all Sri Lankan applications, Rudd who turned away the Oceanic Viking and Rudd who called SBY to stop 250 Tamils who then spent 6 months on their boat in Merak Harbour.

Now it transpires that Gillard wanted a mothership out at sea to jail refugees on for months on end and only stopped because it was illegal.

actually, as graphic and disturbing as the pictures are, we do need to see them / so that our understanding of why people are fleeing is more ‘in your face’ so to speak. the pictures lend weight to the argument for not returning them.

This is not an ALP , NLP hot potato. It is a moral issue, something being done in the name of Australia. I don’t care who started the policy, the issue is that it is continuing and even innocent children are being murdered and tortured and Australia is cooperating with and assisting in these unlawful acts. Shame on us!

Yes Marilyn but this is now, we all get that the ALP has a terrible position on asylum seekers – bringing it up time and time again does nothing to change what is happening now under this current mob of brown shirts.

Red, the ALP wrote the frigging laws Morrison is using and the ALP are absolutely in agreement with most of what he does so why on earth would I let them off the hook?

Seriously, you need to grow up – why is it different to have women trafficked to Manus and miscarry, women trafficked to Nauru who request abortions in despair, the unborn babies are dead and we caused both situations.

What is the difference between sending hundreds of Tamils back to Sri Lanka on planes without due process and sending them home on ships without due process, the results are precisely and exactly the same.

You might note today is the first time the ALP have timidly suggested we shouldn’t do it by boat, but they still support doing it on planes.

I see asylum seekers as a symptom of over-population. When resources are limited, people turn on each other using whatever excuse is most convenient – ethnic difference, religious sect, whatever.

I’m not against giving these people sanctuary, but eventually Australia will become over-populated. I’m not saying we’re overpopulated now, but judging by the traffic I encounter on the morning commute, things could be better.

Eventually we’re going to have to face this problem of over-population. Either we voluntarily reduce our numbers which is unpalatable to about every couple wanting children, or the above pictures will be a mild prelude to what is coming.

Yes thanks Marilyn, I am well and truly “grown up”. So maybe you could enlighten me in how dragging up the ALPs terrible asylum seeker position is going to help stop the brown shirt morrisons actions now and yes I have let the ALP know how disgusting their position on asylum seekers is. I look forward to reading your words of grown up wisdom.

yep, what you said Golden. Who cares who started it – it’s just WRONG on every level and must be STOPPED. Our name is now officially mud in international circles, and we used to be a beacon of hope in the world. NOT IN MY NAME.

I find it appalling how someone can be made aware of this situation, and try to turn it into a your party my party argument and throw ‘grow up’ into the argument! Where is your HUMANITY!!! Get your head out of your a#$ and please do grow up! This situation is unacceptable and atrocious! This needs to STOP NOW!!! Shame on our country!!!

Marilyn, in your rush to blame Gillard nad the ALP for the woes of the world you forget a couple of points.
Firstly whilst Gillard was in power The Greens had more power than they are ever likely to have in the future, they held the balance of power in the Senate. I would assume if these changes were made whilst the Greens were at their most powerful then you would have to think that a vote for them is a wasted vote given this is one of the major platforms they run off and they did nothing that changed a thing?
You also forget a little bloke called John Howard, a previous PM who also used offshore processing.
Bashing the ALP seems to me a bit stupid when large sections of the Party don’t endorse off-shore processing and the Greens have so far shown themselves to be completely impotent on the issue.

On the quip about the Greens and ‘impotence’, it’s a long time since those within the left factions of the ALP – let alone those in the party who are truly left-wing by any real definition – had any significant impact on policy. That section of the Labor Party appears to have less influence now than the Greens did even in 1990, when Jo Vallentine was the only Greens Senator.

I struggle to think of any significant ALP policy initiative driven by its left within the last three decades, only a clear and overarching neoliberal policy shift, steadily deepening over time, driven by those centre-right & further right, who seem to have a unshakeable structural grip on the ALP.

And on the “large sections of the Party” not endorsing off-shore processing, that doesn’t even include the Socialist Left faction. I remember well Doug Cameron’s shabby display in 2012 when he publicly abused the Greens as being “immature & intransigent” because we stood up as the only party opposing the bipartisan ALP-Coalition vote, initiated by Labor, to reintroduce the gulags on Manus Island and Nauru.

And Wixxy appears to forget Howard passed his “Border Protection” legislation with Labor support. I was a Labor member then, that being a major factor in my decision to leave, having since joined the Greens, and will never come back.

Those within the Parliamentary ALP who support onshore processing are small in number and diminishing, which is why the Caucus motion by them saw the vast majority of Labor politicians voting against it. Clearly the bulk of opposition to offshore processing is confined to the rank and file membership. Within either major party, left-wing political voices might as well not exist for all the difference they make.

So people have a choice, whether to break away from the major party straitjacket and get behind a real challenge to the political establishment in this country and achieve change, or to continue an arid existence as congeries of individuals within a political organisation which does not represent them.

I was merely pointing out that Gillard was not to blame for all the woes, we have been there before.

Trying to prove that the Greens were not impotent on an issue by going on a Labor bashing expedition only shows that perhaps I was right, or perhaps as many have suggested you support a Party of political opportunists, picking at the scraps of disgruntled Labor voters.

There are some within the Labor caucus who support onshore processing, and that number outweighs The Greens who refused to come to the table when they had a chance, when the subject was being debated in the house of reps till 3am, where was the lone Greens member? Certainly not taking part in the debate or even in the House.

This issue should not about putting the boot into Labor, last I checked we weren’t in power, nor did we have balance of power in the Senate as the Greens did until a few days ago.
The only Party that seems to be doing any breaking away from anything and gaining in strength is the Palmer United Party.

I may disagree with some of what the ALP do, but that is because I think for myself and most humans will not agree on every single topic. One thing I will say though is that I will not put my tail between my legs and run away, I will stay and fight from within as that is the only way a difference will be made.

That is how a Political Party should be, a Party whose members think those in charge can say or do no wrong are better described as a cult rather than a political party.

We encourage debate as a Party, which is why we make our conferences public. We wear our scars with pride, we do not hide away and censor what happens at conference from the public. We are a Party of transparency, we don’t deny division in our Party, we embrace differing viewpoints.

I do know that Labor are the only Party that represent the bulk of my views and also the only Party with the support to make a real difference rather than having the luxury of never having to back up their words.

Joining a Party that does not believe in transparency sounds more like putting a straitjacket on to me.

I have nothing against the Greens, I agree with them on many issues, but also disagree on many.

I do know this though, if some of their supporters spent as much time attacking the Coalition as they did attacking Labor then together we could make a significant difference.

Peter, Labor parliamentarians and factional leaders appear to spend far more time attacking the Greens than the Greens have ever spent attacking Labor. The more sensational highlights being Gillard’s appalling “Greens don’t share Australian values” speech, Dastyari’s “Labor should preference the Coalition ahead of the Greens” stuff, Howes’ “Greens are Communists” riffs, Anthony Albanese’s equally sickening “Greens are Anti-Semites” outbursts before the NSW election, Doug Cameron’s “The Greens are immature and intransigent” outburst because we opposed the ALP/Liberal consensus on offshore imprisonment of refugees, and Lara Giddings’ “I’d rather see the Liberals in govt than deal with the Greens” bit in Tasmania.

And the attempt to do Scott Ludlam out of his seat in the WA Senate re-poll (Labor Left factional execs reportedly most responsible for that preferencing decision), preferencing Katter in Qld in 2013, decisions by the ALP to preference the Liberals in various House of Reps seats in 2013, and going back further, preferencing Family First ahead of us in Victoria in 2004, thus putting Stephen Fielding into the Senate.

No, Gillard wasn’t responsible for all Labor’s woes – the decisions most directly responsible for Labor’s predicament were those choices they made in govt on the CPRS in 2009, and giving Murdoch 70% newspaper ownership in this country, by way of that Hawke-Keating legislation in 1986 scrapping certain ownership restrictions.

And no, me pointing out those of a left-wing persuasion within the ALP have far less ability to influence policy than the Greens, doesn’t somehow make the Greens opportunists. Bit of the Monty Python ‘If it weighs the same as a duck, it’s made of wood’ rhetoric going on there

Maintaining a clear policy platform and a consistent overarching philosophy, sticking to policy commitments regardless of Murdoch or other vested interest pressures, really isn’t opportunism. It’s the opposite. Christ, as I remember, the ALP backed away from their 2007 promise on refugee rights as soon as their political honeymoon started to dissipate in April 2010 (based on the Morgan poll at the time). Now that’s opportunism

On gaining in strength, I’d point out the Green vote now is more than 3% higher nationally than in 2013, up 4 points in Qld, NSW and Victoria, and up 7% in WA. Outside of Queensland, the Palmer vote hasn’t increased particularly as far as I’m aware.

And what do you mean by “refused to come to the table” exactly? What is it that the Greens could have done differently which would have stopped Labor acting in concert with the Liberals in violating the UN Convention on Refugees, as ever since 2010 – most recently supporting the prevention of public access to info about the burned hands incident, & voting with the Coalition to increase govt powers to indefinitely imprison refugees.

It’s pretty clear both the ALP & the Coalition are an impediment to sane policy on this issue, as on so many others. IIRC, former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope & the Labor for Refugees organisation have been on the record saying people who care about refugee rights are better off voting Green, for example.

And Peter, regarding Labor being the only party who represent the bulk of your views… I certainly hope not.

Since it was a Labor govt (Hawke/Keating), who enacted the biggest company & income tax cuts in Australian political history. Labor responsible for demobilising unions and bringing about cuts to real wages through the Accord, privatising Qantas and the Commonwealth Bank – and at state level, Queensland Rail and other public enterprises & utilities – reducing tariff protection for Australian industries, especially agriculture and manufacturing, giving Murdoch that stranglehold on our media landscape, as I pointed out above (and of course it was Hawke/Keating who first reintroduced fees for tertiary education), and kicking off the race to the bottom on big campaign money in earnest, by way of Richardson, Burke and others in the 80s.

And more recently, aside from the CPRS debacle, watering down the mining tax recommended by Henry, essentially allowing that legislation to be written by the mining lobby, and backing away from even a modest increase in superannuation tax on the top 10% of income earners. Continuing and even worsening the Howard govt’s handouts to private schools (The “every private school will see their (taxpayer) funding increase” promise being particularly memorable in this respect -> http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/no-act-school-cuts-under-gonski-bourke-says-20120820-24hnm.html )

Opposing any increase to Newstart, supporting Australia going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, supporting the continuation of all Howard’s IR laws except WorkChoices (only even removing most of WorkChoices, with the abolition of the ABCC, because of concerted pressure by left-wing unions & the Greens).

Opposing attempts to institute a national anti-corruption commission every time a bill is introduced to do so – not exactly the position of a party which believes in transparency. (Whereas excluding the Murdoch press from Green conferences is only common sense, I would have thought)

And Labor having voted to abolish their own poker machine legislation at the end of last year, not long after having received 350k from the gambling industry.

By the way, I personally pushed as strongly as I could on campaign finance reform back when I was a Labor member – such a policy move being opposed not just by the AWU & Old Guard, but also by the Left faction in Qld.

As far as I’m concerned, as someone who supports democratic socialism/social democracy, “fighting from within” a party who more and more often would make me feel like I should be ashamed to believe what I believe, is not even remotely the best way to make a difference, and is only self-defeating.

And as far as “bashing” Labor is concerned… while the parliamentary ALP continue to espouse a neoliberal agenda & act in concert with the Coalition on various policies, and while the structure of the party guarantees control by the right and further right – something I don’t ever see changing unless the factional leadership from the AWU, TWU, NUW and SDA basically sign their own political death warrants, I dare say many of us within the Greens will attack the party for policy decisions made and the structural nature of the party.

Especially while various Labor leaders increasingly make preferencing decisions that suggest more common ground with the Coalition than us.

I imagine most of us will continue to preference Labor ahead of the Coalition though, obviously since anything is better than a Coalition government. But it’s more and more clear that’s only a choice between a right-wing conservative party and a radical right-wing party.

“Fix the Federation” is the dangerous idea these bastards are trying to sell. They will try to create a crisis and give them selves unlimited powers. Morrison is already operating in secret, now other ministers are lining up to bypass Parliament.
Dangerous moves to” protect us” from extreme religion or communists. As Goering says they just need to manufacture an enemy. Howard had the asylum seekers. Abbott has created homegrown Jihadists returning from the front as
our ‘Enemy’.
Pretty soon you won’t be able to openly talk about this, as trust in your friends will disappear.

Everyone should see these photos – how can Mista Rabbit even suggest it is safe to return the refugees to Sri Lanka and that they will not be in danger!!
He and Morrison have their heads stuck in the sand!!!

people will do as the leadership want. All the ledership needs do is to tell the people that they are under threat or being attacked and the people will agree if there are people who disagree all the leadership need do is label them as not working in the nations interest. It’s the same in any country